It starts again from Austria
For the Austrian Grand Prix, the teams will have the C3 compound available as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow medium and C5 as P Zero Red soft. As in the previous race in Montréal, the three softest compounds in the range will therefore be used. Spielberg weekend will be the second on the calendar with the F1 Sprint. Qualifying to decide the starting grid for the Grand Prix is scheduled for Friday afternoon, after the single free practice session in the morning. Saturday will instead be dedicated to the Sprint Shootout and the Sprint Race.
In the three short sessions of the Sprint Shootout (respectively 12, 10 and 8 minutes), the teams will have to fit new sets of tires and use the Medium compounds in Q1 and Q2. In Q3, however, the use of a Soft compound is envisaged. The Red Bull Ring has only ten corners and is the circuit on the world championship calendar where drivers need the least time to complete a complete lap. The race record is held by Carlos Sainz who in the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix finished the 68th lap in 1:05.619 with his Renault-powered McLaren on a Soft C4.
The driver with the most victories on the current version of the Austrian track is Max Verstappen in a Red Bull with four victories out of the 18 races held since 1997. The most successful constructor is Mercedes thanks to the six first places obtained by Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, all with two hits each. In the 2022 Grand Prix most drivers made two stops, starting on Medium and finishing with two stints on Hard. Overtaking was frequent especially in the middle of the pack with five cars contending for positions below the podium. The variation in height between the various points on the track makes the Red Bull Ring the second circuit in the championship with the greatest difference in altitude after Spa-Francorchamps. Between the closest point at sea level, before curve 1, and the highest point, after curve 2, there is a variation of more than 60 metres.
Mario Isola’s analysis
“The Red Bull Ring is a circuit where tires have no rest. The cars go through the ten corners of the track in slightly more than a minute and the few straights don’t allow the tires to rest. The asphalt has a fairly high micro and macro roughness, due to the age of the surface, and the grip is high from the start. Traction and braking are key elements and particular attention must be paid to managing tire overheating: drivers who are unable to cool them adequately could in fact find it difficult to defend themselves from opponents’ attacks, especially in the first and last sector. An important factor will therefore also be the ambient temperature, with traditionally quite variable conditions. Last year’s race was played over two stops with Medium and Hard compounds but this year, if the degradation isn’t excessively high, the single stop could be a valid option”.
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